Phone calls to be part of drug trial against alleged gang members

By ROBERT GAVIN Staff writer

Published 12:16 am, Saturday, May 21, 2011

ALBANY -- Two reputed Bloods gang members headed to trial next week were secretly recorded boasting how they "burn" and "take out" perceived snitches -- including an alleged Albany gang leader shot in daylight in West Hill under suspicion of cooperating, a prosecutor said Friday.

Ronald "Nino" Wright, 32, and Erick "E-Murder" Cochran, 27, are among the defendants charged in a 195-count indictment from the state attorney general's office aimed at crippling the Capital Region faction of the notorious Bloods gang.

The men go on trial Monday before Judge Thomas Breslin in Albany County Court facing charges of drug-dealing, conspiracy, enterprise corruption and, in the case of Wright, attempted murder. Both face the possibility of at least 25 years in prison.

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Prosecutors allege the gang members not only trafficked heroin from downstate to the Capital Region, but were ready to snuff out squealers in their ranks.

Wright, a parolee and reputed Bloods leader from Nassau County, faced an unrelated murder charge in the May 2009 slaying of 33-year-old Ondrell Daniels in the Broadway Club on Central Avenue. Several witnesses later recanted their statements to police that incriminated Wright and he was never indicted.

The Bloods case underscores the depths of an issue police and prosecutors in Albany have called their number one obstacle in solving violent crimes: an anti-snitching culture in which witnesses are terrified to testify out of fear of retaliation.

On Friday, evidence surfaced at a pre-trial hearing in the Bloods case that showed such fear could be justified, according to prosecutors.

The secretly recorded conversations were highlighted during a hearing to determine what prior "bad acts" by Wright and Cochran, of Albany, should be admissible.

Assistant State Attorney General Michael Sharpe told Breslin jurors should hear four recorded phone conversations between Wright and Cochran that he argued demonstrate their feelings about those who cooperate with law enforcement.

"In each of those four phone calls," Sharpe told the judge, "they talk about who they believe to be snitches. They mention different names of people they think have become snitches. And (in) those four phone calls they talk of what they do to snitches -- that they burn them, that they take out snitches."

Sharpe noted the conversations between Wright and Cochran turned to the subject of Myles Jackson of Albany, known as "Busy," who authorities alleged was the kingpin of a Capital Region Bloods crew known as "G-Shine." They said Jackson had even attained "street status" in the Bloods national organization.

Prosecutors contend Wright suspected Jackson was cooperating with police. They allege Wright ordered a hit on Jackson last July 16 under that suspicion, which was not substantiated to be true. Jackson was shot four times on First Street but survived.

Sharpe told Breslin the phone conversations are critical evidence because they show that Wright intended to kill Jackson.

"That's precisely why we are alleging Mr, Wright had Myles Jackson shot, because they believed that Myles Jackson had become a snitch," Sharpe said. "So in these four phone calls they talk about what they do with snitches and eventually they have Myles Jackson shot because Mr. Wright believed he had become a snitch."

Wright's attorney, Mark Sacco, opposed letting the evidence in. He called it "unduly prejudicial. Jennifer Sober, the attorney for Cochran, also opposed the calls being played at trial.

Breslin allowed the calls in, saying they go to the "central issue" of the alleged hit on Jackson.

Wright and Cochran were among 41 defendants charged in the case brought last September by then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. The various suspects were accused of supplying the Capital Region with cocaine, heroin, marijuana and guns. Among the areas where the gang allegedly spread drugs from Brooklyn and Long Island were Albany, Watervliet, Schenectady, Troy, Cohoes, Clifton Park and Lake George, authorities said.

The four calls at issue Friday are among some 500 recorded phone calls at the disposal of prosecutors to play at the trial, at which prosecutors are also expected to call cooperating witnesses.

Sharpe also noted authorities recovered a handgun at Wright's home on Long Island last July, along with photos of Wright and others flashing gang signs. While the gun is no longer in the indictment, Sharpe asked that the evidence be used to help support the evidence; Breslin agreed.

Sharpe asked Breslin to allow jurors be given an outline of the counts in the case, as well as phone calls or text messages.

Sober objected to the mention of her client's nickname, "E-Murder," in the outline. She also noted part of the outline was written in red, the color of the Bloods gang. She asked it be changed.